On Golden Pond

[Ed Vatza]

... well, actually it is Bubble Pond in Acadia National Park. Our first morning there, we cruised through the park just around sunrise. We found a small group of about five Mergansers sleeping in a small cove on the Pond. They awoke as I was setting up but still looked very sleepy. I have more images with eyes closed than open. This particular Merganser looks very young to me.

Canon 50D; 300mm f/2.8L IS lens w/ 2x TC; tripod-mounted.

1/250 sec @f/5.6; ISO 640; +1/3 EV; natural early morning light.

[Stu Bowie]

Hey Ed, you should have asked them to at least comb their hair to look presentable for the shoot. Cool looking guy, and love the colours on him, and well exposed too. I would take some off the bottom to the line of white in the reflection.

[Randy Stout]

Ed:

Nice hair do!

It looks like the light was very soft, but well off to your right, somewhat behind the bird even.
I might selectively lighten the birds face to help bring up the eye a bit. Lightening the entire image would probably not be good for the left breast feathers, I think it would blow them.

I agree with Stuart about a crop, since the reflection is only so/so, it doesn't add much. I personally wouldn't go quite so high, would leave a small rim of green beneath the white reflection.

Thanks for sharing.

Randy

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the angle, eye contact and hairdo of this lady. Adding to the other suggestions, I might increase the color temperature a bit as it looks a bit blueish on my monitor and another vote for a crop off the bottom.

[Octavio Campos Salles]

Beautiful bird and photo. Just needs a bit clockwise rotation and maybe a little selective darking on the chest to get some more details back.

[DanWalters]

I like the soft light and the colors in the water. Would like to see a little more detail in the eye, however.

[Arthur Morris]

In addition to the great stuff above I would selectively sharpen the head and face with a QM and a contrast mask of about 15/65/0. Like the soft light and the hair-do.